Don’t leave your phone number at Methodist
I just heard about a family where the grandmother had been in Methodist Hospital and had apparently accidentally activated the internet service provided in the room. I say accidentally because the woman was in her 90’s and had trouble figuring out the remotes and the phones.
One of the family members had left his phone number for the hospital to contact since the grandmother was hard of hearing and without her hearing aides. This past month, the family found an unidentified charge on their phone bill. After some investigation, they found that Methodist knew that the insurance company wouldn’t pay for the internet service so the accounting department took it upon themselves to charge the phone number they happen to find available.
Now mind you, this wasn’t the phone number of a financially responsible party–it was just someone trying to be helpful. It could have been a family friend for all they knew. Furthermore, why does the phone company’s billing service simply accept whatever charges are forwarded to them to be included on the bill? The internet service was not received on the family’s phone service. The family didn’t sign anything that said it was okay to bill their phone service. Does this mean that anyone with a decent letterhead and familiar sounding name can send items to be billed to your phone number? I wonder what paragraph in the fine print of your phone service contract that’s covered in?
And why didn’t Methodist charge it to the phone number of the actual patient? Surely they had that information. Maybe because they found the patient’s billing company unwilling to accept the charge? If Methodist wants to argue that the family was somehow financially responsible because they knew the number was a family member’s, then why didn’t they just send a bill in the mail as you would expect? Maybe because they figured that most people wouldn’t take the time to track down the charge on their bills because customer service isn’t and just pay it anyway? If you’ve been to Methodist lately, you might want to pay closer attention to your phone bill.
Filed under: Methodist Hospital, San Antonio, consumer rights, phone bill
I would be skeptical of a story like that, without knowing more facts. As far as I know, a business can’t just call up your telephone provider and tack charges onto your phone bill. A phone number is not like a credit card number. Think about it: with all the scammers out there, if it were possible, it would be happening frequently, to all of us!